night. comedian ellen degeneres is hosting and the favorites for this year's best picture include american hustle, gravity and 12 years a slave. thanks so much for watching al jazerra. i am roaring an radford. "real money" is coming up next. they are some of america's most pressing problems, crumbling bridges, substandard airports and outdated railroads we'll tell you how to fix it and more importantly how to pay for it. and we are taking the pulse of the housing market's recovery ahead of the spring selling season plus conventions of a middle class cab driver trying to get back on the road of prosperity i am david shuster in for al see vanvleet and this is "real money." ♪ ♪

this is "real money" and you are the most important part of the show, so join our live conversation for the next half hour on twitter at aj "real money." and ali velshi. d-plus, that's our great america, i am talking about our roads, bridges, railroads, ports, power grid, communications and more. they get nothing better than a d-plus grade on a report cashed put out by the american society of civil engineers, not only are we not doing enough to modernize our public infrastructure we are barely maintaining what we have running now. once upon a time america's infrastructure was the envy of the world now we are falling behind the rift the world. recently vice president bride inning slammed la guardia as being third world after seeing the hong kong airport. apparently nobody bothered to held them we don't say third world anymore, but that's another issue. president obama says he wants do something about this.

he has proposed a $302 billion a plan that he hopes congress will adopt to modern iron the roads, bridges and trans take sit telephone the highway trust fund gets $35 billion a year from a federal tax in gasoline could run out of money in august because that's not enough to meet all the road and 90 minutes needs, to a avoid that, congress needs to authorize new funding before september. about you the president's four-career fran take proposal is more ambition herb which means it probably won't get through congress think we say that because the president got nowhere when he tried something even more ambushing us in 2011 establishing a bank that leverages private funds for transportation, water and energy. with an infrastructure bank the federal government would identify big projects in the public interest visit mon from the private sector and guarantee the loan it's a joint public private model used by many countries around the world but

smacks too much of the socialism to many republicans in congress. in the meantime american continues to sufferer because i've lack of leadership on this issue you. a concept of a national infrastructure bank isn't new but pro* proposals to create one are gaining traction among law makers, am see spoke with kevin from the center of american progress a progressive think tank focused on policy and asked why now is a good time to turn the idea in a reality. >> for far too long we have under invested in infrastructure and as a result of that, we see this tension between the need to expand our system to meet increased travel demand, growing population, increased international trade, and so governors and many state departments and transportation face a paradox of need to go continue investing in the old system to insure it's in a stated good repair but also need to go make the critical new investments so that they can continue to grow their economy and provide opportunities for their citizens. >> all right. and i guess the ink you here, kevin is that if you don't have the money to start with, then you are not doing the

maintenance you can't get our your hid around the new stuff. the analogy is if you don't have money to fix a knew leaguing prove and you get a new boiler you are not thinking about building a an extension. >> that's the case. it's important to remember that a bank has to be part i've comprehensive national strategy. you mentioned the highway trust fund which is capitalize woods a gaza gasoline at 18 1/2 cents a gallon will run dry meaning putting a halt to critical projects during the heart of summer construction season and putting people out of work. i would add that the gas tax that capitalizes the funneled was last raised in 1993 in that time, it's lost a great deal of its purchasing power, it's really equivalent to only 11 1/2 cents today in control terms and to put the 20 years in perspective. in 1993 jeff was i can park was the new one mover any america, gas was a dollar five and you are spoon union was just being created it's been a long time

since we raised that tax. >> let's talk politics, you would think i would think maintenance of i believe that structure and building of new crossed parties lines it has something for everybody. why do we not have bipartisan support or why do people just not want to support it. is that we just have a bad taste in our mount about government spendinspending and about how te stimulus was executed? >> i think that's part of it. it's let tough to go to the public and ask for more money. and i think that you know, people drive every day, they take public transportation every day, our system has worked fairly well and so sometimes some of the, you know, the sky is falling rhetoric of people who care about infrastructure and who understand its role in our economy, i think sometimes it appears to pimas though there is a gap, my commute cass bad but not terrible. >> but i guess the thing is i wish we would get away from the sky is falling rhetoric, i get it every time it snows we shouldn't have power outages for hundreds of thousands of people that's a problem, we need our power lines fixed and put underground why not high speed rail and the best broadband

system in the world lie south korea has. why not these cutting edge global things, why do we have to deal with i believe that structure on a sky is falling basis as as opposed this to is this is how we become the best country i in the world? >> i think in part we have seen for many years now republicans have attacked government particularly the federal government at every turn and that undermines people's confidence in their a difficult billed on achieve and deliver on big grand ideas and infrastructure products it hard to have a conversation when one of the two major political parties is trying to convince people of the inning end at that tied of the federal government it's tough to that have discussion i think good to talk true kevin . it. strong but slowing down, that's a simple but accurate way to describe the recovery in the u.s. housing market. we had a lot of data to digest last week so let's start with new home sales. no one expected to see sales jump 9.6% from december to january.

and the home price index rose 13.4% in 20 their 13 2013 the large most gains sin 2005. that's the strong part. here is the slowing down, home prices declined 110th after 1% in november and december. that's consistent with other more recent signs of slowing existing home sales fell. and housing starts dropped 16% in the same pert. home sales and price growth are expected to soften this year, the reasons include a decline in home afford bit because mortgage aims remain about a personal point above where they were a year ago. and of course, rising prizes have made home too expense five some potential buyers, ali spoke with chris merry real estate professor at columbia business school and asked if a larger slow down is ahead. listen. >> i think we are starting to see the effect of interest rates coming up think you know, when rates go up any i rememberly, people get off the fence and say, owe my god. >> i getter by.

>> get in fo in to the market we saw that the second half of the year and we are seeing the evening that have show up in terms people having a little lessen throughs i can't remember to jump in the market. little less urgency. >> despite the fact that at four 1/2% for a 30 years fixed mortgage if you have good credit that is one of the lowest rates we see in our lifetime. >> no question that you have to go back a very long -- you know, maybe we hit slightly lower levels you know, nine months ago, but basically for your and my lifetime that we remember, you are going back, you know, 30, 40 years to see times you know, before the 1970s and in to the 960s and 50s where inter rates were anywhere near in level for buying homes. >> you look at a 13% increase in homes, do you see another year of that. now we start too get in for worrisome territory where people say is that sustainable? >> i am not worried about the price level frankly. if house prices fall 50% and go up 20%, they are only increasing off of a really low base, so some of the numbers are driven

by a very low base and house prices nationally collapsed a lot. so i am not worried yet that house prices are at unsustainable levels. what worries me is really the lack of household formation people are living at home. you are not seeing first-time buyers coming in to the market at the same rate and i think it's real that i that sort of is concerning to me more necessarily than just, you know, headline number -- >> play that out why is household formation important as an economic thing? >> well, it's important because it's really people getting on with their lives and the economy. so when people buy homes particularly first-time buyers they spends money on other things and this stem lates the economy and the new household formations drive home construction, even though numbers are up from where they were before, they are nowhere near the level you know, which would even get us back to kind of normal population growth which is would be, you know, a million and a quarter to a

million and a half a year that's really what we would sort of think of as a normal market. and we are no i don't where near those levels. >> and ultimately this is all connected to the very same things we are always concerned about with respect to the middle class and the growth of the middle class it's job and income. >> yeah. i mean, ill really worry if we lose the impact the homeownership in our economy, we'll have a cohort of people when they hit retirement age will be unprepared much worse than the numbers seem to suggest think because people don't count housing and savings people hit retirement age and haven't got the nest egg built up it will be much worse two for all of us. >> thank you for joining us professor of real estate at columbia business school. philadelphia is the city of brotherly love. eagles, rocky and cheese steaks what it's not anymore, middle class, not like it used to be. we'll explainment and he's you were employed, but undaunted next the new york city cab driver who is trying to get off the road and back to his career.

>> there were certain issues that i am dealing with namely lack of discretionary income. i stopped saving. in other words, my life isn't on cruise control. >> those stories and more as "real money" continues. >> every sunday night al jazeera america brings you controversial... >> both parties are owned by the corporations. >> ..entertaining >> it's fun to play with ideas. >> ...thought provoking >> get your damn education. >> ...surprising >> oh, absolutely! >> ...exclusive one-on-one interviews with the most interesting people of our time. >> you're listening because you want to see what's going to happen. >> i want to know what works what do you know works? >> conversations you won't find anywhere else. >> talk to al jazeera. >> only on al jazeera america. >> oh my!

philadelphia is a p*eb example of the decline of the middle class, the city of

brotherly love is known as a solidly and proudly middle class and even blue collar town, back in 1970 just a few years before the first rocky film was made, it was just that, 59% of the city's residents were middle class, by 2010 it dropped to 42% according to the whitely repped widely respected pew charitable trust. it's lost a large share than america has as a whole. america starts to split along haves and have nots philadelphia isn't everyone benefit having that trends, as it hasn't seen an increase in its upper class as the rest of the nation has, between 1970 and 2010 the share of lower class philadelphians grew this their% of the population to 47% making it the single biggest part of the city's population.

and the least able to support the costs of running the city. the study goes on to say that most of the hollowing out of the middle class occurred before the year 2000 and well before the great recession. ali was able to dig deep never to this report with larry the project director for pew's philadelphia program. listen. >> one of the fascinating things we found was that in 970, 44% of the people that we considered middle class didn't even have a high school degree. because there were those blue collar jobs available. obviously that's not the case now. you need a college degree or at least a lot of college education to be considered part of the middle class. and that's true nationally. it's certainly true in philadelphia. >> so when people say -- i have been talking to people about this all day. and they say, tell me why? why did it happen? what happened to philadelphia why was it hit harder than so many other cities that you looked at? what's the answer to that? >> well, i mean, it was

certainly hit hard whether it was harder than other cities is hard to say think philadelphia was a heavily manufacturing town. and when those jobs disappeared, it took a hard hit, and it may be took a little longer than some other cities to figure out what the next step was. you

paid, i have no opportunity to emergencies come up and you can take care of them. other than the bills getting paled, i have no opportunity to enjoy what life has to offer. and if there is an emergency which account do a roid to pay foo manage. >> you sound sound like eye guyt has a piece of the american dream, has a setback and want to get back on the road to achieving it, what's the road map for you? >> i'll don't drive a cab to pay my bills this will not be forever for me. i didn't go to college to drive a cab. i am pop at this mystic about the future because we are in one of the wealthiest cities in the world. if i can't figure out a way to access some of that wealth then shame on me.

>> jay stein is optimistic about the future, but it isn't actually that easy to recover after such a big slip. he went from making $125,000 a year to $60,000 gross, long-term unemployment has devastated the middle class and just isn't as easy to bounce back as it used to be. on average it takes 41 weeks for someone to find a job. it's a tough reality which is why we are so impressed with jay's attitude and his certainty that he can rebuild the american dream, that's why we decided to high notice not just his story but the story the entire middle class, next up digital video and the need for speed. we'll tell you what the streaming deal between netflix and comcast could mean for you the couch serve is house of cards watching consumer. that story and more as "real money" continue. s.

the meets i can't world was all a buzz last week after comcast announced an interconnect agreement with netflix. the deal gives netflix direct connects to comcast broadband network. that network promises to give comcast 23 million customers faster streams of netflix video content including the house of cards drama series and a whole host of movie titles that netflix subscribers scream over the web. reports say netflix will pay comcast for the direct connection but it isn't clear how much.

to insure faster delivery it's a contents netflix want to cut out internet mid men known as content distribution practice he describedders and do business directly with comcast. very surprise income firms it's in similar talk with net flicks to direct connect to it's fios service all this raises fears that broadband pro tid describedders could charge more for certain content with do assume ers paying more for testimony notices in the clear if net flex is may go more to internet middle men to route its traffic. but either way many analysts say the net neutrality is now under threat. to understand what we are talking about, patricia has this report. >> can you please just cut me some slack. >> now nanette flick has direct access to comcast broadband pipes customers who are fans of shows like orange is the new black can look forward to fast glitch-free streaming. >> i have a prison wife.

her name is crazy eyes. >> but advocates of a free and open internet are core i had consumers could end up on the wrong end of deal. >> i find that in the end consumers always end up paying. so if netflix is taking on some additional costs from comcast or verizon, eventually we find that their hands are reaching in tower wallet. >> higher bills could just be the beginning. last month a federal circuit court struck down the sec's net net neutrality rules. much like a public highway is open to all, net neutrality insured the infrastructure used to deliver content over the internet including the last mile pipes owned by giants comcast, verizon and at&t would be open to providers and consumers. supporters of net neutrality argued that allowing major broadband providers to charge a toll to band with hungry services like video streamers or throttle delivery of their

content will limit consumer choice and possibly undermine internet freedom. >> the beauty of the open internet is that you can innovate without permission. this deal suggests that it's getting harder to do that. >> but opponents of net kne neutrality argue charging for priority access over pwraopbd band networks will generate ref flerevenue to upgrade networks. and making easier to wash shows at the push of the button. al jazerra, new york. we learned last week the top pick from the car critics consumer reports and this car doesn't use any gas at all. the battery-powered tesla model s luxury sedan is the first american built vehicle rate the best overall. ram 1500 best pick up, that's the first time a chrysler grabbed top honorses in 16 years. lexus the top brand for overall quality by consumer reports for

the second straight year. ford and jeep sit at the bottom of the brand rankings tied to last the magazine says ford did well in road tested but it's reliability score was hurt by a coy compliment complicated and buggy info trainment system. ford is dumping the microsoft based sit system for one that loses bloc blackberry, stay stei jay steins o optimistic but we are not sure he should, it's not that easy to cover after such a big sleep. a pew study shows it best folks lost that lost a quarter of their income after a decade a third still not gained their footing. for baby boomers like jay it's most difficult the closer gets to retime. let's face it, people are scared of this very thing happening to them. jay's definition of the middle class is to not have to worry about money and to enjoy what life has to offer. that's a valid definition because the american dream isn't just about money it's about

security, and a little piece of mind. that's wha why we decided no toe highlight just jay's story but the entire middle class. that's our show for today. thanks is always for joining us. ♪ ♪ you are watching al jazerra america live from new york i am jonathan betz with today's top stories the head. ukrainian navy has been fired for treason not long ago the commander public a swore allegiance to the russian-backed leader of crimea.

russian troops have surrounded the ukrainian military base, the prime minter called it a declaration of war and now calling up army reservists. there was conflict in st. pete, st. petersburg demonstrator clashed over putin's request to use force, authorities say 40 people were arrested in the rally. >> hundreds of people matched and camped in bank cog vowing to topple the government. egypt's interrupt president has sworn in a new government. the new lineup has 20 ministers from the old cabinet, including defense minister' del sisi he's widely expected to run for president this years a live look at preparations for the 86th annual academy a wards in los angeles. in just a couple of hours fans and stars will be arriving there for hollywood's biggest night. talk show hold ellen degeneres is hosting. favorites including american hustle, graph reu and 12 years a

slave. those are the headlines think i am jonathan betz i will be back in an hour with more news, but up next the documentary toughest place taxi driver starts now for updates all day go to al jazerra doll come. have a good day. taxi driver to join the taxi wallahs in the indian megacity of mumbai. >> whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. big bus, big bus, big bus. what have i got myself into here, eh? >> he'll have to come to grips with some unusual driving conditions... >> jesus. >> too much problem if you are